There is still a week to go before the main 2026 Emmy ceremony, but one of the inevitable problems of any awards season may already be visible: boredom. Not because the winners are bad or undeserving, but because once the favorites start winning everything, the element of surprise disappears very quickly.

That was the case with The Studio in 2025, and it is beginning to happen again with Widow’s Bay, The Pitt and Pluribus in 2026. The first Emmy nights have already made it fairly clear which productions are heading into the main ceremony with momentum — and, if the trend continues, many of the envelopes may simply confirm what we are already expecting.

Widow’s Bay was the weekend’s biggest winner, collecting eight Emmys and heading into the main ceremony with more victories than any other program so far. The Pitt, the reigning Best Drama Series winner and this year’s nominations leader, added another four trophies. Pluribus, one of the shows that could challenge it in the major categories, also won four.

There is nothing unfair about that. Quite the opposite. All three are among the most acclaimed shows of the season. But awards have this curious effect: the more consensus there is about who deserves to win, the less fun there is in finding out who actually will.

At least Betty Gilpin managed to disrupt the script a little. She won Guest Actress in a Comedy for Widow’s Bay, in a category in which Hacks star Kaitlin Olson had been leading many predictions. It was Gilpin’s first Emmy after three previous nominations for GLOW.

Gilpin also provided one of those rare moments that justify watching an awards ceremony live. Surprised by her victory, she read a poem she had written on her phone after her co-star Hamish Linklater convinced her that winning was, after all, a “scientific possibility.” She ended by urging artists to lean more toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman, a playful defense of art at a moment when Hollywood is obsessively debating artificial intelligence.

Perhaps that is exactly what the Emmys will need next week: a little less algorithm. Because the problem with major awards seasons is not that there are favorites. It is when the favorites begin winning so consistently that a three-hour ceremony starts to feel like nothing more than the execution of a results list we already knew.

The Studio, Widow’s Bay, The Pitt, Pluribus: all excellent. And all, at this point, looking dangerously likely to make repeated trips to the stage. There is still room for an upset. There always is. But after the first results, the chances seem smaller. And let’s face it: an award can be fair without being particularly entertaining.